Tips for Dental Emergencies
We recommend that if your child complains of any pain in their mouth or if you notice any facial swelling, accompanied by a fever that you do not delay in seeking treatment. Any sort of facial infection in a child can quickly proceed to a life- threatening condition. Likewise, if your child has an accident and injures their teeth, delaying seeking care can cause the teeth not to be able to be saved. Obviously, if your child has any signs of a head injury such as losing consciousness, vomiting, bleeding or clear fluid from the nose, ears and head or is disoriented you should take them to the nearest emergency room first. But please feel free to give our office a call for advice or to make special arrangements to see your child in a timely manner.
Protocol for an avulsed (knocked out) tooth (always if your child has sustained head trauma take them to the nearest emergency room first, see above for signs of head trauma):
If your child knocks out a baby tooth the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry does not recommend re-implanting it back into the socket. Just bring the child and any tooth you have for an emergency check.
If your child knocks out a tooth and you are unsure whether it is a baby tooth or adult tooth err on the side of caution and follow the recommendations for an adult tooth.
If your child knocks out an adult tooth, and you can find it, pick it up by the crown of the tooth only, do not touch the root. If there is debris on it, hold the tooth by the crown and try to use whole milk to rinse it off, and re-implant ASAP(less than 15 minutes) in your child’s mouth. Then call and make arrangements to come immediately to the office. If for some reason you are not able to re-implant yourself, put it in a cup of whole milk, call and make arrangements to come to the office immediately. If you do not have milk handy, put it in your cheek or wrap in plastic wrap to keep moist, and call to make arrangements to come immediately to the office. Do not ever rinse the tooth or store it in regular water, saline is ok. Some facilities offer Hanks Balance Solution which is the best to store the tooth in till you can get to a dentist.